Mozart’s ‘Figaro,’ With a Cast in First-Marriage Age Bracket

Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” often has an added resonance when performed by a cast of young, eager singers who have fresh memories of adolescent crushes and romantic stirrings. This was true of the production by Mannes Opera on Sunday afternoon in the Kaye Playhouse of Hunter College. (The performance was the second of two.) The likable, well-schooled and endearing cast had both undergraduates and students in the master’s programs at Mannes College the New School for Music, so the average age was the early 20s.

What’s more, the Kaye Playhouse, which seats roughly 600 and has lively acoustics, is an ideally intimate space for Mozart. Best of all, Joseph Colaneri, the artistic director of Mannes Opera and a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, drew a fleet and bracing performance from the student orchestra.

Yet the production had one problem. It was performed in the original Italian, without the benefit of titles. For veteran operagoers this was a throwback to the way things used to be. But audiences these days have come to count on titles.

No doubt it would have been too costly and complicated for Mannes to have installed a titling system in a rented theater for two performances. But this seemed a perfect occasion to present “Figaro” in English translation. One down side of the popularity of titles has been to marginalize the venerable practice of performing opera in translation. Mr. Colaneri and his team understandably wanted the students to gain experience singing this staple in the original Italian.

Photo

Marcello Guzzo and Sookyung Ahn as Figaro and Susanna.Credit
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

But was this production primarily a teaching tool or a public service? Mannes missed a chance to offer families and opera neophytes an affordable production of “Figaro” performed in English in an intimate theater by an exuberant young cast. What better introduction to Mozart opera? But it became a production best experienced by opera insiders.

That said, the cast got its chance to sing the work in Italian and fared very well indeed. The tall, hardy baritone Marcelo Guzzo was a robust and charming Figaro. Sookyung Ahn brought a bright, rich voice, lovely feeling for legato phrasing and infectious vitality to Susanna.

The soprano Vira Slywotzky’s performance as Countess Almaviva was a living demonstration that singers in their early 20s are still discovering the dimensions and qualities of their voices. She has a naturally large sound with cutting power. Might she even end up a Wagnerian? It’s too soon to tell. For now, singing the Countess was good training.

The mezzo-soprano Yong Kyung Park was a scene stealer as Cherubino, which goes with the territory in that role. Young Joo An as Count Almaviva, Do Jin Jung as Bartolo, and Keiko Kai as Marcellina were also appealing.

Ted Taylor provided marvelously fanciful recitative accompaniment at the harpsichord. Roger Hanna created simple, handsome and effective sets. Laura Alley’s directing, though traditional, was stylish and breezy. But the singers had a tendency to overact and slip into comic opera shtick. This seemed evidence of their understandable fear that many in the audience had no idea of what was going on. Subtlety was pointless.

A version of this review appears in print on , on Page E5 of the New York edition with the headline: Mozart’s ‘Figaro,’ With a Cast In First-Marriage Age Bracket. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe